ABSTRACT
Direct action consists of those activities that citizens undertake in order to demonstrate or obstruct and thereby realise maximise publicity. Direct action is associated with individual citizens like ‘Swampy’, whose fame rests on his involvement in tunnelling at various road-building sites. Direct action can also be linked to larger protests that appear to be spontaneous. This spontaneity is largely achieved through the employment of modern technology. Through the internet, groups are able to access and share information instantly whilst mobile phones allow instant deployment to maximise effectiveness. One illustration of this effectiveness can be seen in the way that an extremely small number of seemingly unorganised citizens were able to disrupt the movement of fuel during September 2000 through the blockading of fuel depots and refineries and the disruption of traffic. The result of their action was considerable, with the supply chain almost breaking. In this case direct action worked as a means to gain publicity, and although those taking part in the fuel protests would claim not to be breaking any laws, there will, however, also be a smaller core of citizens who are prepared to go further and seek to achieve greater publicity through the use of illegal or violent action.
